Ms Aciro says the burden has been left for NGOs to fight for the girl child. PHOTO/SHABIBAH NAKIRIGYA
What is your observation thus far in the push for respect and protecting women against GBV in Uganda?
"In terms of women’s rights and equality, I see a lot of groundwork done, especially at the community level. More women are going into the public sphere, meaning that women are moving away from domestic chores.
"You evidently see this when you happen to go to the market and farms. Women are trying to move around to make ends meet. But I also see that action by women to improve their own status being affected by this [women’s rights] notion, leaving the whole burden to them because she is able to let her pay her children’s tuition, buy food, and cater for other responsibilities.
"So that also created more burden on women. People do not understand that as much as women want to work it doesn’t mean that women should take all the responsibility. So there’s a forward and backward movement in terms of women’s rights and gender equality. I also see that we are falling back as a country in terms of the commitment we made both on the laws and resource allocation."
And what is the cause?
"Politics has taken over the interests of the people and most of the work being done is about survival and it’s not obuntu. So people are using this for their own personal advantage. You hardly hear women’s issues tabled as a national agenda rather as a political agenda—whether it is from central government or local government.
"This burden has been left to NGOs and fortunately just like their names they survive and get the little from development partners, the government institutions—that is how they work."
The progress of your work in some instances is impeded by cultural practices. What are the major practices obstructing the success of your efforts?
"One of the key issues is land and property ownership. That notion of land doesn’t belong to a woman still exists. Therefore land is really an issue and you know it’s a huge factor of production. For women, it’s a huge hindrance to their empowerment because communities and societies are socialised to believe that women do not own land.
"The other pertinent issue is abuse that cuts across the entire nation. It has become normal for women and girls to be abused because, ‘how can you report your husband?’ In this case, mother and daughter have become double victims.
"The third issue is economic empowerment which has a lot of ties with land and abuse. The majority of the women work in economically gainful employment and because of that they are prone and subjected to abuse.
"The only way of getting out of this is economic empowerment and education. Here I am talking about both formal and non-formal education.
"The girls and boy children are not trained right from home. In the past, one would leave home after learning how to make baskets, or ropes for hanging pots. There is no education at all at home anymore.
"Even basic skills such as how to keep the home neat is no more. This, coupled with the quality of education which has now taught us to cram, makes our young people, especially girls, unemployable and that’s why we have these issues of abuse happening."
What are the other challenges affecting the progress of this fraternity?
"Political will is crucial. Strong political will. If you go back, Uganda committed to women’s rights and equality 20 years ago and the progress we have made between 20–25 years ago is what we are still celebrating today.
"There was a strong will manifested by the resource allocation, campaigns, and freedoms that the people were able to engage, assemble, and speak out.
"That will is no longer there. You can’t challenge the status quo.
"If everything gets normalised and abuse there will be apathy and people will start withdrawing, they will not speak out, and thus become self-centred. That’s one of the greatest challenges.
"Resource allocation—women’s issues are always raised and prioritised in the budget with UN year in year out, but nothing has been done.
"When you look at the Ministry of Gender that should be providing the voice, coordinating, and doing oversight of women’s rights and gender equality, the budget for women’s rights is not clear.
"Remember that ministry is not only for women. It has other categories of people which include PWDs, workers, children, youth, and it has the least budget, yet it has all the issues we are talking about, and the social challenges are part of the Ministry of Gender."
The current regime of leadership has many leaders, and institutions such as Parliament are led by women. How do you feel that you’re looking for political will and one would think that they should be taking the lead?
"As much as we are feeling that there’s progress in terms of numbers, we have reached a point where numbers are not the only thing. We want to see action.
"As much as we appreciate that very significant women hold positions in this country, many times it’s thrown in our faces, complaining why the women aren’t helping other women because we have decision-makers like the Vice President, Prime Minister, and Speaker who are all women.
"We want to see these women representing us in different issues. We would like to see them speaking more, collaborating, reaching out, and being identified with women’s issues more.
"However, I must also say that we are cognizant of the structure that is patriarchal, a structure that is made of a male face. So at times you see the women there but they are gagged in those structures—that is why we need to join hands and break those barriers that continue to gag women.
"Even when they are in such positions, and part of breaking those barriers is by working together.
"One of the things we do as UWONET is we speak for a larger women’s movement because women’s leadership is at all levels. But our strategy over the years is skills development. Knowledge creation and networking are very crucial for those women.
"It’s one thing to be in a position of leadership; it’s another thing for her to have the knowledge and the skills first to navigate the issues.
"Many of these women get into these positions and they do not have the skills and knowledge, which is also challenging. And that is what we are looking at in terms of ensuring that we build experiences and expectations.
"The majority of women do not have an interface with these people, and we have a generation of people who are 40 and below in the local council but they don’t interact. That is the intergenerational network, which is crucial.
"Somebody might see it as just a meeting, but it creates a lot of impact to learn from each other and to get empowered."
Parting shots
"People who came before us almost started with nothing but they made progress and for that reason, we do not have any excuse to give up. We must continue to persist, insist, and remain consistent, and that women’s rights are human rights."
"Above all, if we believe we are really honest with ourselves, women’s rights cannot be left.
"We have to improve women’s issues because they are a political agenda and they cannot be at the sidelines because women are the majority of the population."
"If you leave women behind, they will drag you behind with them."
